AMUSEMENTS.

Hokitika Guardian, 21 September 1929, Page 3

AMUSEMENTS.

EVERYBODYS PICTURES.

“ THE SAWDUST PARADISE ”

-TO-NIGHT,

Something new in motion pictures—a street carnival with scores of shilling • catching sideshows and concessions—ifor'ms the background for the romance of “The Sawdust Paradise,” Esther Ralston’s new Paramount picture to be screened at the Princess Theatre tonight. Months before this picture went into production at the Paramount studio in Hollywood, a search was launched to find p.' carnival that could be moved to the studio and used there for several weeks, . Far greater difficulty developed than had been antici- . pated. It was discovered that itinerant carnival shows are fast disappearing from the United States, although several still meet with fair success in the rural districts of Europe. The motion picture and the radio have eliminated them as an entertainment necessity. However, a show was found and moved to Hollywood for the express purpose of forming the background of “ The Sawdust Paradise.” It includes a merry-go-round, ball throwing games, hot dog and lemonade stands, ring, tossing games, the 'diving girls, the fat lady and the human skeleton and all • the othei features.

. The usual supports will also be shown including scenic, topical and comedy

THE ALLAN WILKIE COMPANY.

"THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.”

Mr Allan Wilkie, C.8.E., s bringh g his well-known Shakesperean Company on the close of a season at Greytnoufh to the Princess Theatre where lie will stage “The Merchant of Venice,” perhaps the best known and the most popular of all the national playwrights works. The story of Shylock and the implacable hatred of bis Christian fel-low-merchant that leads but to his undoing, the romantic wooing by Bnssanio of the fair lady of Belmont, the charming casket scenes, the episode of Lorenzo’s elopement with Jessica, ‘ ths fair infidel,’ old Shylock’s daughter, the inimitable fooling of Lancelot Gobbo, the poetic beauty of the final scene in the moonlit gardens of Belmont, are,

or should be, all familiar to us from our schoolroom days. But they are familiar too off ten as the flower is familiar to the botanist who has dissected it and in the process robbed it of all its beauty. Seen through the medium for which it was intended, i.e., the stage, “The Merchant of Venice” becomes once again vital drama, stirring the blood in the veins, moving us by the beauty of its language, rousing us to laughter now by its pointed wit now by its good humour. No one who has only read a play of Shakespeare can fully appreciate its supreme qualities and merits. It must be seen upon the stage, its characters interpreted, and elucidated for us by the actor-conver-sant with Shakespearean tradition, tho music of its verse made vocal by the. art of the practised histrion. From a ! Company of the calibre of the Allan Wilkie Coy. we may expect all these

tilings and can confidently look forward to a delightlul evening’s entertainment. Allan Wilkie will of course be seen as Shylock with Miss Hunter-Watts in the role of Portia. Box-plans aie at Miss Mclntosh’s.